A place for an occasional examination of the work of the Inklings... and to marvel at, in Charles Williams' words, "... the staff work of the Omnipotence".

The Long Defeat...

In
choosing to express my inner geekdom, I presently have SIX books by my bed that
are by or related to Mr Tolkien (I have about 12 bed-side books in all just
now), and last night I read something that kind of pinged me inside somewhere.
Here's the quote:

Actually, I am a Christian, and indeed a Roman Catholic;

so that I do not expect 'history' to be anything but a
'long defeat'

- though it contains some samples of final victory.

Now, I
don't think I've ever before come across anyone telling me that this is a (or
The) standard Christian worldview - I suppose in the circles in which I've
moved, the emphasis has tended to be that because God is living and active now,
everything of His in the world is in the process of redemption (ie. everything's
getting better). But now I'm not sure.

Everything
in creation is decomposing (everything physical, I mean); I know that. We are
in a world where humans are constantly trying to make things that last, whilst
concurrently destroying (or at least messing up) the only things that actually
do last - creation, friendship, God, etc.

Elves
in Middle-Earth had a weird role. They had LIVED in paradise (the High Elves
had anyway) and seen perfection. They remembered it. But they weren't a
forward-thinking people - all their songs and ideals came from millenia
previously, and it was all they could hope for to 'preserve all things
unstained,' as Elrond said. I think all of us instinctively recognise something
about the good old days which made them good in contrast to now, but we're told
that we are silly to think like that. I'm not so sure.

Through the ages of the world we have fought the long defeat. [Galadriel]

The
idea of the long defeat is definitely not very triumphant, in the Pentecostal
style of Christianity. The Rohirrim ride 'for ruin and the world's ending', not
for a present victory, which is only a fool's hope (says Gandalf). Recently,
I've been noticing the sensation of 'hanging on' quite a lot: kind of a
helplessness; the world's wheels are turning and I just need to keep going,
keep hanging in there.

When
he needed to, Sam saw a star through the smogs of Mordor and 'the beauty of it
smote his heart, as he looked up out of the forsaken land, and hope returned to
him.' I need that. Just plodding through smogs is CRAP, however heroic a story
we paint ourselves into. We need to know that we win, in the end, or even after
The End. Otherwise, what's the point?